Survival Tendency
by Inkonstantin
Summary: A version of events in which Caesar doesn't die.


**AN:** Because the _Jojo's Bizarre Adventure_ fandom has a dearth of fanfics, and especially of good ones, and I'm an arrogant enough asshole to believe that I and I alone can contribute to the remedying of that.

And also, Caesar needed to be saved.

* * *

 **Survival Tendency**

* * *

So this was Switzerland's famous Saint Moritz, Jojo thought, looking out over the snowy town with its steep tiled roofs and evergreen trees, the white mountains in the distance and their reflections bright on the glistening crystal lake.

A winter sports hub often called 'Sun Valley.' Chic, relaxed and sophisticated. A resort the wealthy visited on holidays.

It was a view straight off one of those oh-so-grandiose 'Merry Christmas' cards. They'd always made him feel disgusted, just like this town and the thought of all the stuck-up snobs he'd inevitably run into, vacationing without a care in the world.

Self-important people had always ticked him off more than anything.

Movement caught his eye and he glanced to his right to see a cat slinking pompously along the railing, a creamy white with black ears, paws, and tail, nose stuck pretentiously in the air.

Even the cats looked like they were owned by actresses, he thought, and tossed a piece of shrimp at the cat's feet. Once a cat always a cat, right?

But the feline just glanced disparagingly at the shrimp and then turned up its nose haughtily.

"Aren't we fussy?" Jojo remarked, narrowing his eyes. "Not even a glance for shrimp." He wagged his fork at cat. "This little princess doesn't know a thing about the world," he chided. "Well, then…" He speared a piece of smoked salmon, holding it up. "Would this smoked salmon suit your palate?"

The cat looked over at him. "Meow!" The cat leapt eagerly down and walked over.

"Now now! I've found your preference," Jojo cheered smugly, holding his fork low, enticing the cat. The cat swatted at it, and Jojo pulled it up out of the the cat's reach each time.

"Meow!" The cat kept swatting.

Once a cat, always a cat, indeed.

"Reach! Reach!" Jojo goaded. "Just a bit more…"

The cat finally got up on its hind feet, putting one paw on Jojo's chair as it stretched up, swatting with its other.

"Stretch up a bit more…" Jojo said, pulling the smoked salmon up higher.

"Meow!" the cat said eagerly, stretching up, almost there. Absolutely certain of getting its way.

"Gotcha!" Jojo grinned, and swiped the unsuspecting cat's legs out from under it with his foot.

"Meeoow!" the cat yowled as it landed hard on its back, before springing onto its feet and dashing away. "Meeeooow!"

"Oh? Did I upset you?" Jojo smirked. "Enjoy, you pompous puffball!" He sniggered. Served the cat right, thinking it was so much better than him just because it lived in a winter wonderland and was probably owned by some rich hotshot. And here Jojo was trying to save the human race from ancient vampire pillar men, damnit.

Jojo looked down at mostly empty plate and sighed, resting his hand on his fist and closing his eyes.

Really, had he had to do that?

He straightened his hand against his face and opened his eyes. "No, no," he chided himself. "That was mean of me." It was just because he was on edge.

Five days until the ring dissolved. And Kars was serious about killing him.

He turned in his chair and crossed left leg over his right, clenching his fist loosely. He could feel the threats closing in. He had to relax. He was the one always saying that you can't mope about stuff, after all.

He'd deal with this. He could do it. He couldn't let himself get freaked out and then go off half-cocked. The enemy would be waiting to use his anxiety-induced negligence against him. He'd just get himself killed.

Or worse, he'd get someone else killed.

"Jojo, what are you doing?" came Lisa Lisa's voice, interrupting his thoughts, and he glanced over to see her standing by the railing with Messina and Caesar. "Come here and look!"

" _Hai!"_ Jojo called. "Be right there!" He stood from his chair, walking over.

(Caesar was looking at him funny. What was with that?)

"That building is the address Esidisi put on the package," Lisa Lisa said, pointing at large castle-like building straight ahead in the distance, accessible by a large snowy path through the dark, snow-garlanded trees. It was rather conspicuous, all things considering. Kars may be hiding inside, but he sure wasn't trying to hide _where_ he was hiding.

"Looks like an old, closed-down hotel," Messina noted, examining the place through a pair of binoculars. "A perfect hideout for Kars during the day. The windows are boarded up. No sunlight in there."

"I'm sure Kars hides there during the day," Caesar said, voice laced with a grim edge. "I bet he's waiting for Wamuu."

Jojo frowned at the boarded-up hotel. It was too conspicuous. Too obvious. Too 'Oh look at this extravagant boarded-up luxury hotel I'm hiding in during the day like a sitting duck, no way is this a trap, I'm just ancient royalty so of course I'm going to hole up in what used to be some five-star resort hotel!' It made the hair on the back of Jojo's neck stand on end.

"So, what is the plan?" Lisa Lisa asked. As if she wasn't the one in charge.

"Hmph," Caesar said, as if that were a stupid question. "That's easy." He pointed at the mansion. "We should attack now!"

He was right: it was the easy answer.

It was too easy.

"I agree," Messina said. "Kars can't go out during daylight. We have the advantage."

"Jojo?" Lisa Lisa asked.

"I…" Jojo stared at the mansion. There was something wrong about it. It was just that— _too easy._ It wasn't just the hair on the back of his neck standing up, he could feel the hair prickling on his arms, too. His hair was never wrong. "I disagree."

The others turned to him in shock, making noises of flabbergasted surprise. Had they really expected he'd be all for just barging in there? Was that the kind of person he seemed like he was?

Yes, he was on a time-limit. Only five more days till that ring around his heart started killing him. He wasn't the kind of person to actually let that kind of thing get to him, no matter how he might play it up that he was with a bit of melodrama here and there. But he was the one who took advantage of his enemies' emotional weaknesses, not the other way around.

He wasn't scared. He was thinking clearly.

"I think it's more dangerous with the sun up," he declared, turning to look at them, gesturing to emphasize his point. "Kars has lived for thousands of years like this. He won't have left himself defenseless!"

" _Nani?!"_ Caesar asked angrily.

Thousands of years having to avoid the sun, and all his prior experience fighting Hamon users. He would never leave himself a sitting duck. If he was advertising his location this way, it was because he _wanted_ them to come, to try to attack him when they thought he was at a disadvantage. It would be doing exactly what he wanted and Kars would be the one in control of the situation.

Jojo pointed at mansion. "Walking into his lair would be suicidal! I won't go! It'd be like a bug walking into a web!"

Kars was more powerful than them. If he had control of the situation, it was all over. They couldn't overpower him; they had to outsmart him.

Jojo had always defeated his opponents through trickery, by exploiting their negligences. But Kars was terribly, terrifyingly tenacious. And when the sun was up, his guard would be up even more. The same way animals were more dangerous when they were cornered, Kars would be more dangerous when the sun was up and he knew he couldn't afford to make a single mistake. There was no way they'd be able to win when Kars was like that.

It would be better to wait for night, to wait for Kars to inevitably make his move, when Kars is feeling confident that he will win, confident that there is no way he could possibly lose. In his overconfidence he'd be negligent, just like that cat earlier, and then they'd actually have a fighting chance.

" _Oi oi,_ " Caesar said, and the anger in his voice shifted to a goading smugness. "Jojo, this isn't like you. Are you scared?"

Jojo didn't take his eyes off the boarded-up hotel. "I'll take Sun Tzu's advice here," he said firmly. "Only fight when victory is assured." He shook his head. "I said I won't go!"

Caesar grabbed him bodily by the scarf, snarling his his face. "Are you chickening out?!"

"Chickening out?" Jojo said, meeting Caesar's furious green gaze, just inches from his own. "My head is cool. I'm thinking straight." What was with the heat in Caesar's eyes? What was his problem? He wasn't the one with a ring around his heart that was going to kill him in five days. "We have to wait for his move!" Jojo insisted. Caesar could afford to wait. It shouldn't be a problem.

"You want a sure victory?" Caesar growled. "Kars is alone. We are four! We have the numbers! We have to strike now, before Wamuu arrives!"

"Caesar, you're going off half-cocked!" Jojo said, putting a hand on Caesar's wrist, making Caesar let go of his scarf. They both took a step back slightly, Caesar's breath no longer hot on his face. "Keep your head," Jojo said firmly. "Calm down and think. If we walk in there, he's the one in control!"

"I'm not half-cocked!" Caesar said furiously, green eyes wide and full of rage. He looked utterly mad. "I'm gonna end this! I'll finish the fight that killed both of our grandfathers! I'll destroy Kars!"

"You'll finish it?!" Jojo demanded. "What about our dead grandfathers?! Who cares?! Don't drag the dead into this, you idot!"

This wasn't about their dead grandfathers, this had nothing to do with them. The dead were dead. This about _them_ , about _their_ lives. If they rushed into this, _they'd_ just end up dead. Him and Caesar both, and Lisa Lisa, and Messina. They'd _all_ be dead. And what good would that do anyone?!

But Caesar's teeth were gritted, his fists clenched. "What did you say, Jojo?!" he demanded furiously.

Jojo leaned forward, pointing his finger in Caesar's face. "Family you've never met doesn't mean crap!" he said, his own temper rising. "Only a complete moron would die for that!" He threw his arms out and took a step back. Surely Caesar could understand?! This wasn't about their grandfathers! This was about them!

Jojo was going to get through this alive; and Caesar was, too. That's what was important. They couldn't throw caution to the wind just because their grandfathers had been killed by the mask a long time ago—their grandfathers were bound to have died at some point anyway, after all. What did it matter how?!

Caesar was staring at him with wide eyes, and for a moment Jojo thought he'd finally gotten his point through the Italian's thick head.

But then Caesar took a step back slightly, gritting his teeth and glaring at him, and there was fire burning, _roaring_ in his gaze.

Jojo's gasped slightly, staring at Caesar in shock. He'd never, _ever_ seen Caesar so angry, so filled with so much hatred and unadulterated _rage._

And all directed at him.

"Caesar?!" Messina said.

"Watch your mouth, Jojo!" Caesar shouted, and reared back his right fist, slugging Jojo in the face with all his strength, knocking Jojo to the ground.

Jojo fell hard on his back, face smarting and the taste of blood in his mouth. He sat up angrily, hand over where he'd just been punched. "What was that for, you—?!" he demanded, only for Caesar to literally _step on_ his face, pushing him back onto the ground.

"A sucker punch, eh?!" Jojo demanded, pushing Caesar's leg aside and leaping to his feet, punching Caesar in the face with his left fist. He didn't hold back. If this was what it took to knock some sense into Caesar, then—

"Oh, it's on!" Caesar snarled, and threw another furious punch, this one landing against Jojo's nose.

Even as Jojo stepped back from the blow he could feel the blood starting to run down from his nose over his lip. "What the hell, Caesar?!" he demanded, punching at him again, only for Caesar to dodge—and then end up in the perfect position for Jojo's second blow to connect.

"Shut the hell up, Jojo!" Caesar snarled, slugging him again, though this time Jojo managed to block the first blow with his forearm and then dodge the blow that followed it.

Jojo was able to get a few more punches in, one to the chest and then two to the face, dodging when Caesar aimed at his head, managing to knee him in the stomach and then land a strong punch straight to his face, before Lisa Lisa stepped between them, her hands against Caesar's chest, while Messina grabbed Jojo under his arms and dragged him back.

"Caesar, stop it!" Lisa Lisa cried.

"You too, Jojo!" Messina said.

The blood was thick and disgusting in Jojo's mouth and hot on his face as it streamed from his nose, but at least he could say that he'd paid Caesar back in kind. His face was all bloodied up now, too.

It hadn't cooled him down any, though. He still looked absolutely furious.

"Y-you bastard…" Jojo growled, as Caesar glared at him over Lisa Lisa's head, his fists clenched tightly at his sides.

Messina finally let him go, standing back, and Jojo straightened. "Have you lost it?" he growled at Caesar. "You're acting like a madman!"

That raging fire was still in Caesar's eyes.

Lisa Lisa had stood back.

"Jojo, I thought you'd understand inheriting a battle like this," Caesar snarled, like it not just angered but pained him, as if he'd been betrayed in some way. "I was wrong!"

"Huh?!" Jojo demanded, taking a step forward, his fists clenched. More of this inheritance bullshit! What the hell was Caesar's problem?!

Caesar turned away, looking to the boarded-up hotel. He wiped the blood from his mouth. "I'm going," he said, and started walking. The line of his shoulders was all iron determination.

"Caesar, Jojo is right," Lisa Lisa said. "It's too dangerous."

Caesar paused, his left hand on the cold stone railing of the balcony. He looked like a statue of the Greek God Hermes, frozen there with those ridiculous feathers in his headband, his already pale skin washed out in the snow-reflected light to a marble-like white. And then there was the serious expression of his furrowed brow, his set jaw, the heroic dramaticness of his wind-swept blond hair and the tense muscles of his forearm below his rolled-up sleeves…

Only, someone had stuck that blue and black ski jacket and that pink scarf on him, so that he matched the snowy mountains towering behind him in the distance, as if to make him fit in with the quaint and pompous ski town.

The moment was frozen like the picture of a damn ski resort postcard, and Jojo couldn't help but stare at him and notice, absurdly, that the purple triangles on his headband perfectly matched those purple triangular birthmarks on his cheeks. Had he done that on purpose?!

He must have, the pompous bastard. All he needed was that damn cat from earlier to twine itself around his shoulders, and then he'd _really_ look like he belonged there.

"We don't know what might be in there," Lisa Lisa was saying. "We will wait for Kars. That's an order, Caesar. Protecting the stone is our first objective."

Caesar tilted his chin down, closing his eyes, and it was like a stone statue had suddenly moved while he'd been absently contemplating it. Jojo practically had to fight of shivers, because sheesh! Way to make this bizarre situation even more uncanny!

(The hell was going on in Caesar's dense head, anyway?)

"Sensei, I'm sorry," Caesar was saying. "I can't obey." But he was saying it like a vengeful god, so the apology didn't really come through. "You know this is a blood issue. It's a Zeppeli problem!"

Whoowhee, definitely a vengeful god. All that damn blood stuff. Who did he think he was, Zeus?! Kars could wipe the floor with him!

"I can't leave it unsettled while I know where Kars is!" Caesar was saying, looking back at them over his shoulder with that damn _fire_ in his green eyes, and it really didn't do that weird chartreuse color any favors! "I can't sit back and wait for him to come!"

And then he vaulted over the damn railing, headband and scarf fluttering, and fell out of sight.

Messina took a step forward, staring after him. "Well?" he asked, the question obviously directed at Lisa Lisa.

"Follow him and stop him from entering, even if it means the use of force," Lisa Lisa said, her arms crossed, walking to the railing and watching Caesar leave behind his trail of footprints in the snow. Had he even made sure he was wearing proper snow boots before he ran off half-cocked? He wouldn't get very far if his feet got soaked and cold!

(Although he could warm them up with Hamon, but still! You don't just run off like that without checking that you're all prepared! What was going _on_ in his head?!)

(And why had Caesar _looked at him_ like that, with so much hatred and pain and _contempt_ _?_ )

"C-Caesar…" Jojo stammered out, the words falling like slabs of water and ice from a frozen waterfall that was starting to thaw, creaking and groaning in the sunlight after the dark clouds of anger drifted away. "Why?" The frozen waterfall groaned and cracked, fracturing, and the water was really starting to flow now. "Why are you so grim all of a sudden? Why can't you wait a while?"

"Jojo," Lisa Lisa said, turning her head to look at him, all grim-like, "you've touched on a piece of his hidden past." Jojo could only look at her. "You didn't mean it, but your words hit him where he's most sensitive." The words were like a slap to his face.

Jojo looked after Caesar, his eyes wide, and something in his chest lurched. "His hidden past?" he murmured. Whatever was lurching and constricting inside him sure wasn't his stomach. "Wh-what could it be?"

* * *

The snow crunched beneath Caesar's boots. One step after another.

He was not hurrying. Nor was he dawdling.

Jojo's words echoed around his head.

" _Caesar, you're going off half-cocked!"_ The way he'd grabbed Caesar's wrist, shoved him away. _"Keep your head. Calm down and think. If we walk in there, he's the one in control!"_

He was not half-cocked. Unlike Jojo he was not hesitating, but contrary to what Jojo thought he was not rushing. He was clear-headed. He had all his wits about him. He was confident. He would destroy Kars.

Jojo's words echoed around his head.

" _I disagree. I think it's more dangerous with the sun up. Kars has lived for thousands of years like this. He won't have left himself defenseless!"_ The way the grave glint of his aqua eyes had belied his childish words, his overdramatic gestures. _"Walking into his lair would be suicidal! I won't go! It'd be like a bug walking into a web!"_

Caesar didn't understand. Jojo wasn't scared—he couldn't honestly be scared. Caesar had seen him face off alone against Wamuu, and even when he'd been gravely injured, lying helpless on the ground, he'd never flinched, that smug smile never leaving his face.

(Caesar's chest had never ached so acutely.)

Caesar had seen Jojo clinging to the Hell Climb Pillar, just below the stream of deadly high-velocity oil, had seen the way his face had been twisted in frustration, in thought, in determination, had understood that he'd throw his all into trying something stupid rather than give in to even a flicker of fear.

(While Caesar, on the other hand, had never before felt so afraid.)

Caesar had seen him face off, again alone, against Esidisi, and come away victorious; had seen the way Jojo faced off against the possessed Suzi Q, the way he'd never feared that they'd have to sacrifice her to defeat Esidisi.

(Caesar had never been so glad to know someone as he'd been then to know Jojo.)

Caesar had seen him falling towards the ground, kicking Kars away from him and starting to make rope of icicles using his Hamon, never fearing that Caesar wouldn't be there to catch him.

(Caesar had never felt so damn warm.)

As childish and absurd as Jojo often was, always playing the fool and the clown, Caesar had never seen him once balk from fear. He'd never seen Jojo hesitate to take action.

(And oh, there were so many times it had made him _jealous._ He'd had to push himself harder than ever just to make sure Jojo didn't pass him.)

So why now? Why did Jojo balk _now_ , of all times, when the opportunity was so perfect?

Jojo's words echoed around his head.

" _I'll take Sun Tzu's advice here. Only fight when victory is assured."_ The way Jojo had shaken his head, like a petulant, obstinate child. _"I said I won't go!"_

Why now? He wasn't honestly scared because of that ring around his heart, was he? In five days it would kill him. It made Caesar grit his teeth and clench his fists, but surely _that_ wouldn't make Jojo lose his cool?

Jojo's words echoed around his head.

" _My head is cool. I'm thinking straight."_ The way Jojo had had to look down slightly to look him in the eye, the way Caesar had been forced to look up at him. _"We have to wait for his move!"_

Jojo didn't think they could beat Kars as they were now. Even after all their training. With all they'd accomplished, with all that _Jojo_ had done all by himself, how could Jojo doubt them _now?_ How could Jojo doubt himself? How could he doubt _Caesar?_

It was the perfect opportunity. How could Jojo _let this go?_

Jojo's words echoed around his head.

" _You'll finish it?! What about our dead grandfathers?! Who cares?! Don't drag the dead into this, you_ _idiot!"_ The way Jojo had snarled and jabbed his finger at Caesar's face, as if it were _Caesar_ who was the absurd one. As if he were some stupid _child._ _"Family you've never met doesn't mean crap! Only a complete moron would die for that!"_

Jojo didn't get it. Jojo didn't get at all.

Caesar had once convinced himself that family didn't matter, after his father had left. That family that wasn't there anymore didn't matter.

But Caesar's father had died for him. Had taken up the mantle of his father against the Pillar Men, had left and had fought in order to keep his children safe, because that kind of history didn't stay buried.

Caesar's father, and his grandfather—and Jojo's grandfather, too—they had both died tried to protect the world and their descendants from untold evils. They cared enough about that mission that they were more than willing to die for it, even if it meant leaving their families behind.

So why didn't Jojo see?! Why couldn't he see, that it was up to them to finish the battle that their grandfathers had started, that it was up to them to win the war their grandfathers had died fighting?!

Their grandfathers, and Caesar's father, had died fighting these monsters so that they could live—it was up to them to finish it! This wasn't just about them!

But maybe Caesar couldn't have expected anything more from a man who'd grown up with neither siblings nor parents, who'd grown up knowing absolutely nothing about his grandfather, the battle he'd fought, the way he'd lived, the way he'd died.

Even though Jojo knew, now. Jojo knew everything. But even though he knew, he still didn't get it. He didn't get it all.

Jojo's words echoed around his head.

" _What was that for, you—?!"_ The way Jojo had looked when Caesar had kicked him, blood trickling from his nose and mouth. _"A sucker punch, eh?!"_ The way Jojo had punched him, the way he'd finally looked as if he were taking something seriously for once. _"What the hell, Caesar?!"_ The way those fists had slammed into his stomach, his face.

Caesar knew that Jojo wasn't an idiot, as much as he acted like one. So why couldn't Jojo understand?

So what if it was a trap? This was still their perfect chance. Defeat Kars, before Wamuu arrived, with the daylight as their weapon. All Caesar need was a window, a hole in the wall, and he could use his bubbles to reflect the light exactly as he wished.

Not even Kars would be able to get away from that, no matter what he might have planned.

But if they waited, Wamuu would arrive, and their chances of defeating the two Pillar Men at once were significantly lower than defeating one of them at a time. And if they waited for Kars to make his move, he would definitely attack at night, and then they'd be at a significant disadvantage.

Caesar was not an idiot. He knew that even after all his and Jojo's training, Kars and Wamuu were still more powerful than them.

But sunlight was the one thing the Pillar Men were defenseless against. So they needed that advantage on their side. They couldn't afford to wait.

Why didn't Jojo see that?!

Jojo's words echoed around his head.

" _Y-you bastard…"_ The way Jojo had snarled at him, the curl of his bloodied lip. _"Have you lost it?"_ The flash of those aqua eyes. _"You're acting like a madman!"_

Caesar was not a madman. He knew what he was doing. It was Jojo who wasn't thinking right. That ring around his heart and the five-day deadline must be rattling him.

Well, that was okay. Jojo could be rattled. Anyone would be, in his position. And Jojo had fought Wamuu by himself, before he'd even had any proper Hamon training, and then he'd had to fight Esidisi by himself, and both times Caesar had been useless, unable to help.

So this was Caesar's turn. He'd defeat Kars with his Bubble Cutter, and then Jojo would be free to focus on his impending battle with Wamuu.

Caesar had reached the gate to the boarded-up hotel, pushed it open. The snow crunched beneath his boots as he walked inside.

Jojo wouldn't have to worry.

"One set of footprints leads in," Caesar noted, his gaze trailing along the ground.

 _See, Jojo?_

He was calm. He was thinking clearly. He would win this.

Even when the doors to the hotel unexpectedly burst open and he sensed an invisible figure emerge from inside, even when Messina's arm was sliced off and he was pulled inside by the figure who turned out to be Wamuu, Caesar never for a second felt fear or doubted himself.

(And if it was Jojo who'd taught him both what true fear felt like and what it meant to face seemingly impossible situations with the utmost confidence, then so what?)

(This time Caesar would teach Jojo something.)

* * *

"I see," Jojo said, staring out over the snow where Caesar was a shrinking figure in the distance.

He'd had no idea that Caesar had had such a past. It would never have occurred to him that the pompous, lady-killer Caesar he knew had once been poor, and that he'd once been a thug feared even by members of the mafia.

And the way his father had left to fight the Pillar Men, and then had died saving him…

"Caesar's misunderstanding led to hatred," Lisa Lisa continued. "But that became pride in his father and his family. So Caesar picked up where his father had left off."

Jojo stepped forward, his hands on the cold railing as he stared at Caesar's figure continuing to move steadily towards the boarded-up castle-turned-hotel.

"He wants to avenge his father," Jojo said, the realization sinking in, twisting that same mysterious organ inside him that had been giving him so many unpleasant sensations since Caesar had looked at him with that raging fire in his gaze.

His hands tightened on the railing. "Forgive me, Caesar. I didn't mean to speak ill of your family."

It was hard to see Caesar at that point, but Jojo thought he could just barely make out his figure approaching the hotel's gate, as steady as a tank. Even with all that time to think and second-guess during the long walk to the hotel, Caesar hadn't once paused or turned back.

Jojo couldn't help the smile as a different realization thrilled through him: "If you want to go in there despite it being a trap, then you must have a way to beat Kars."

He stood back, and his grin made his face ache. Probably only partly because Caesar had punched him. "I've changed my mind!" He almost could have laughed, if his failure to realize that sooner didn't hurt so much. "If you're going in, then I'm right behind you, _Caesar Zeppeli!"_

There was no one else Jojo trusted more to watch his back and fight at his side.

(And yet, when Caesar had asked for his trust in this battle, Jojo had been too self-absorbed to give it to him. Maybe Jojo always relied on emotional manipulation and underhanded tricks in his fights, but Caesar had always been more straightforward—he'd blast through whatever Kars had in store with blatant power and straight-laced finesse.)

Not one to be outdone, Jojo vaulted over the railing, landing with an icy crunch in the snow below.

Lisa Lisa landed lightly beside him. "Are you sure about this, Jojo?" she asked, looking at him. "You were quite adamant about not going earlier."

"Oi, a guy can change his mind, can't he?" Jojo said, and reached his arms behind his head, popping his shoulders. He grinned. The icy air was exhilarating against the skin of his face. "And besides, even if he is a little half-cocked, better there four of us going in half-cocked than just one of us, right?"

They started walking, and Jojo gestured grandly, letting out a laugh. "And what if he defeated Kars all by himself while we were just sitting around on our butts, huh? We'd never live it down!"

Earlier he'd thought he wouldn't go to that boarded-up hotel for anything in the world, but suddenly it seemed there were countless reasons to follow Caesar there. If Jojo started trying to count them on his hands, he'd run out of fingers and have to borrow some of Lisa Lisa's, and he didn't think she'd be willing to lend them to him.

They kept walking, the snow crunching beneath their shoes. Jojo was trying not to rush.

Caesar would be okay. It wasn't like they were that far behind him, and Messina had gone after him to try to stop him. And even if Caesar got past Messina and went inside anyway, he was perfectly capable of handling himself. He'd left without them, after all; clearly he didn't even think he needed them. And Messina would be there to watch his back until they got there.

Damn, but Jojo would enjoy seeing the expression on Caesar's face when they showed up! It was bound to be smug, but he would be pleased under there, too.

But would he also be surprised, or did he expect that they would follow him?

They kept walking, the snow crunching beneath their boots. Aside from that, though, it was eerily quiet. The way the snow deadened all the noise really was creepy.

Jojo shuddered despite himself. It snowed in New York, sure, but it was a city; there was always noise.

Jojo started humming, just to have something to listen to aside from crunching ice crystals. He'd try to strike up a conversation, but he'd learned the hard way over the past month that Lisa Lisa wasn't really much of a talker.

"All work and no play makes Lisa Lisa a dully lady," he'd chided her several times, but she'd just looked coldly at him and then turned her back, proceeding to ignore him and his indignant cries of, "So cold!"

So Jojo hummed to himself, and definitely did not quicken his pace. Because that strange twisting sensation in his gut definitely had nothing to do with anything. He'd probably just eaten something bad. Maybe it was that shrimp? That pompous cat had probably known something he hadn't. He hoped he didn't throw up.

He shuddered at the thought. Throwing up in the middle of a fight; that would be so embarrassing! He'd never live that down! Caesar would surely never let him forget it, the pompous bastard. Just like that damn cat.

The gates of the boarded-up hotel were finally rising into view. He didn't see Caesar or Messina, though. He couldn't very well be blamed if his pace quickened a little at that, now could he?

"Caesar and Messina aren't here," Jojo noted as they walked through the open gates, his gaze sweeping across the snow. "Are they already inside?"

That organ somewhere in his midriff felt like it was shrinking, hardening and clenching like it was trying to become a rock. That couldn't be good. Maybe he should've seen a doctor? (It was certainly too late to do so now. And in any case, the organ probably wouldn't kill him before one of the Pillar Men did, or else he died from that damned ring around his heart.)

(Wait. Maybe the poison from the ring was acting five days early?!)

(But no, he didn't think his heart was located that far down… it was supposed to be in his ribcage, right? With his lungs? The center of his Hamon power. He needed to focus on his breathing.)

Only, that wasn't all that easy to do when there was a dismembered arm in the snow. A dismembered arm that had once obviously belonged to Messina, although it had now gained its independence.

"Th-that's…" Lisa Lisa sounded almost just as alarmed as he was. He really hadn't thought Messina would be one to abdicate ownership of his limbs so easily. "What happened?!" Lisa was wondering.

(Well, it was clear enough what had happened. The relinquished and now-independent arm had surely gotten help from some foreign power. Probably from the Land of the Pillar Men.)

(More importantly: Where was the rest of Messina? Had he managed to retain the rest of his limbs? And where was Caesar?)

That organ in Jojo's gut really wasn't doing so hot.

(The only answer was that Caesar and Messina were already inside.)

Jojo and Lisa were already hurrying towards the hotel entrance when the doors were blown right out of the wall by an unbelievably strong blast of wind, chunks of stone toppling down, half-blocking the gaping hole that had been created.

"S-such destruction!" And what the hell was that organ doing now? Twisting itself into a knot? (There was only one thing that could cause such a powerful wind).

"It-it couldn't be!" Lisa Lisa cried.

But it was. "It's Wamuu's Divind Sandstorm!" That organ that had petrified into a rock was now rolling around inside him, like there was a whole chutes-and-ladders assemble in there. His insides weren't a damned water park! (But there was sweat trickling down his face, because if that was Wamuu's Divine Sandstorm then that meant that Caesar—)

"So that means that Caesar is…!" Lisa Lisa had had the same thought as him.

But Jojo was already sprinting towards the blasted entrance, that stone organ shoving its way up into his throat, because—

 _Caesar._

* * *

Caesar had miscalculated.

The blood was seeping from his body. Pain everywhere. Weak, trembling. Growing colder.

He needed to breathe. He needed to defeat Wamuu. He needed to finish this.

He pushed himself to his feet. Pain everywhere. Hot liquid dripping down his face. Blood in his mouth. Dripping into his eyes.

"Don't."

Caesar was going to finish this.

One step after another.

Pain everywhere. His legs were shaking. His entire body was trembling. Weak.

"You will not fight again."

Caesar focused his gaze on Wamuu's face. Focused on his breathing. Collecting his Hamon.

He was going to finish this.

"My Divine Sandstorm has shredded your body."

Caesar just needed to keep breathing.

Pain everywhere. He pulled back his arm.

He was going to finish this.

"Stop. The battle is done."

Caesar hit him with all his strength. All of it.

He might as well have given Wamuu a friendly pat. Weak. So weak.

"You have no more Hamon."

That wasn't true. Caesar just needed to keep breathing.

"See? You've almost bled out."

Blood draining from his body. He was getting colder. Pain everywhere.

"That means you have no hope."

He just needed to breathe. Keep breathing.

He pulled back his arm, hit Wamuu with all his strength. Again. Again.

"Stop."

It didn't do anything. He was weak. He'd miscalculated.

He'd almost destroyed Wamuu. But he made a mistake. A single mistake. He'd pay for it with his life.

But he'd severely injured Wamuu. This was his chance. He couldn't let it go.

He was going to finish this.

He punched at Wamuu again, missed. Wamuu hadn't moved. Caesar had slipped in his own blood. He was falling backwards.

"Goodbye. Your life has ended."

Not yet.

Caesar set his foot down in his blood, launched himself at Wamuu's retreating figure. All his strength. He would use all his strength.

He couldn't let his efforts go to waste.

"What?!"

Caesar couldn't defeat him. Not like this. Not as weak as he was. Dying.

It didn't matter. Jojo was still alive.

Jojo wouldn't die.

Caesar grabbed Wamuu's lip ring. "Heh." He let himself fall backwards. The ring tore out of Wamuu's flesh. Caesar fell down the steps.

It didn't hurt. He'd already reached his pain threshold. Pain everywhere. Falling down a flight of stairs was a single drop in the ocean.

The ceiling cracked.

"My lip ring with the antidote. Why?"

Because Jojo.

The crack in the ceiling spread. Deepened. It was going to collapse.

"I-I'm… not afraid to die." And Caesar wasn't. Just like his father wasn't. And his grandfather wasn't.

Just like his grandfather had given his life for Jojo's grandfather, and his father had given his life for him, Caesar would give his life for Jojo.

So Jojo would win. So Jojo would live. So Jojo would save everyone. Caesar wold give Jojo everything.

A weakened opponent. The antidote. His Hamon. Everything.

Because Jojo would win. And Jojo would live.

Because it was Jojo.

" _Caesar!"_

And even dying as he was, Caesar wanted to smile.

Because it was Jojo.

* * *

Jojo was clambering over the large chunks of stone, even as more kept falling. It was taking too long. He needed to get inside, but all this damned stone was in his way, slowing him down!

Inside the hotel, Caesar could be—

Jojo was choking on the petrified organ lodged in his throat, an empty pit in his gut where it had used to reside.

"Hamon Overdrive!" Jojo blasted the stone out of the way, realizing too late that he may have just made the crumbling structure even more unstable, but he couldn't worry about that now because there in front of him, kneeling on the floor in a pool of blood, his body completely shredded, was—

The petrified organ plummeted down into his stomach.

" _Caesar!"_

Jojo was rushing forward, the ceiling above them cracking, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Wamuu standing at the top of the steps but he didn't _care_ , because the ceiling was about to _fall_ and _Caesar was—_

"Jojo!" It was Lisa Lisa, but Jojo barely registered her voice. He wasn't thinking, not really; nothing beyond the fact that the ceiling was _falling_ and _Caesar was—_

Jojo tackled him out of the way, the huge chunk of stone crashing to the ground behind them, right where Caesar had been.

But now Caesar was under him on the ground several feet away, and that maybe hadn't been the best plan, considering how utterly _broken_ Caesar looked, bloody all over, blood seeping into his wide-open, dazed green eyes.

"J-Jo… jo…" a cough, a bloody splutter, an agonized gasp, and Jojo had completely lost track of that petrified organ in the gaping abyss that had opened up inside him.

"Caesar," Jojo was saying, over and over, hardly aware that he was speaking much less of what he was saying, sitting up and gripping Caesar's shoulders. His grip was probably too tight, but Caesar didn't so much as flinch. "Caesar, you gotta stay with me. You gotta stay with me, you arrogant asshole. You idiot. What were you thinking?! Come on, you gotta stay with me!"

"J-Jojo…" Caesar was shakily lifting his hand, pushing something at him, holding it in Jojo's face. "H-here… f-for you…"

"Hey," Jojo said, gripping Caesar's hand with both of his own, eyes never leaving Caesar's face. Dazed, bloody green eyes, trying desperately to focus. Blood on Caesar's skin and in his hair and trickling in a steady stream from his mouth. "Hey, hey Caesar. You gotta stay with me, bud. You gotta stay with me."

"J-jojo…" Caesar was pushing his hand at him, twisting it in Jojo's grasp. "T-take it…"

Only then did Jojo finally realize that Caesar was trying to give something to him.

"Jojo!" It was Lisa Lisa. "Wamuu is…!"

Jojo didn't care. All his attention was on Caesar. Caesar, who was dying right in front of him.

Caesar, who was trying desperately to give him something.

Jojo unclasped Caesar's hand, looked down at it.

Blood-soaked fingerless gloves and weak, trembling fingers holding tightly to something gold and glinting—

The ring.

Wamuu's lip ring. The antidote. Slipped around Caesar's headband. Why was it slipped around his headband?

Had Caesar been planning to—?

(That stone had fallen right where Caesar had been kneeling.)

"Caesar—" Jojo choked.

"T-take it," Caesar gasped, coughing up the words along with a mouthful of blood. "J-jojo… Wamuu is…" He shoved the ring and headband at Jojo more insistently. "T-take it… defeat him… defeat Wamuu, while he's still…" Another cough, the blood splattering over Jojo's hands, his shirt. He was already covered in Caesar's blood. Soaked in it. "Still weak…"

"I'm not leaving you!" Jojo's grasped his hand, staring into those fading green eyes. "Caesar, you gotta stay with me!"

"Jojo, Wamuu is—!" Lisa was standing there, between them and the stairs.

"Forget Wamuu!" Jojo shouted, and he was furious. "We need an ambulance!" And maybe an optimist, too.

Jojo clutched Caesar's hand. "Caesar, you gotta stay with me!"

"He's leaving," Lisa Lisa said, and she sounded like she could hardly believe it. "Wamuu could be using this opportunity to attack us, but… he's leaving."

"J-jojo…!" Caesar had grabbed Jojo by the collar of his shirt, had somehow tugged him down and shoved the ring in his face. "Take it! T-take it!" His green eyes were desperate, pinned to Jojo's face. "W-wamuu, you h-have to… defeat him…!"

The puddle of blood around Caesar's body was growing. Jojo was kneeling in it, soaked in it.

An ambulance would never make it in time.

Jojo felt like screaming. "Lisa Lisa, can you…?!" There was a way to heal someone with Hamon, right?! Why hadn't they learned that?!

"Move, Jojo." Lisa Lisa was kneeling there, her hands on Caesar's chest, glowing with a gold Hamon light. "I might be able to save him."

"D-don't…" Caesar was gasping out, and his eyes were wide and wild, green and striking against all the blood, his paling, graying skin. "L-leave me… W-wamuu… you have to…!" He was still holding the ring. His hand was falling.

Jojo took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment. He needed to stay calm. Lisa Lisa would do what she could—if anyone could save Caesar, it was her.

Jojo opened his eyes, grabbed Caesar's hand, took the gold lip ring from him. Stared Caesar in the eyes.

"I accept your proposal," Jojo told him, and slipped the lip ring from the headband, snapped the metal, holding it up and licking up the antidote that oozed from it.

It was gross, so incredibly gross, but the grossness was the last thing from Jojo's mind in that moment.

There was relief in Caesar's green eyes, happiness. "J-jojo…"

"You know what this means though, right?" Jojo said, and took Caesar's hand in both of his own, tucking the snapped lip ring into Caesar's palm and wrapping Caesar's bloodied fingers around it. "' _Till death do us part.'_ So you better live, do you hear me?! Don't you dare make me a widower before we've even had the chance to have a proper wedding!"

"J-jojo…" Caesar was smiling through the blood and the pain, his green eyes becoming more and more unfocused and distant. "Th-thank you…"

"You heard what I said, right?!" Jojo demanded, and gripped Caesar's hand tighter. "We're betrothed now, so you're not allowed to die on me!"

"J-jojo… I know you'll…" a weak, bloody cough, a wet and gurgling wheeze, "defeat W-wamuu… f-for… for me…"

And then Caesar's eyes slipped closed, his head tilting limp against the floor.

"CAESAR!" The name was ripped out of Jojo's throat along with what might've been his heart.

To think that all this time he had lived caring only about himself—or rather, believing that he cared only about himself.

But the idea of losing Caesar felt like losing part of himself, so he must care about Caesar, too. More than he'd realized.

Jojo gripped Caesar's hand, praying to every single deity he could recall the name of from what little he had retained from his years of school—who was there? Zeus and Neptune and that underworld guy and Athena and some guy called Set and maybe an Isis and some guy with a jackal head in there or something? A sun god or two?

He'd never believed in any of them of course, but at this point it couldn't exactly hurt.

Lisa Lisa's hands were still glowing on Caesar's chest, and Jojo desperately sought her gaze.

"He's still alive," Lisa Lisa told him, her blue eyes meeting his steadily. "Just passed out."

Jojo swallowed around the lump in his throat.

Ah, so the petrified organ had made its reappearance.

"C-can you…?" Jojo choked. He didn't want…

He didn't want to know…

He stared at her. He couldn't look at Caesar. All the blood. So much of it. He could feel it on him, was finally registering it as it started to cool, started to become gelatinous, caking on his skin.

To think all this blood had once been in Caesar's body.

"I'll do everything I can to save Caesar," Lisa Lisa assured him, and her voice and her blue eyes were steady. "You should go after Wamuu. Defeat him while he's still injured. Finish the task that Caesar started."

Jojo swallowed. Man, would that damn organ ever get back to where it belonged?

He stood up, slowly. Chanced a glance at Caesar's face.

So much blood. So deadly pale beneath it.

Jojo's stomach twisted. Was that organ starting to petrify now, too?

Under all the blood, Caesar somehow looked peaceful. Smug and confident. Like he knew Jojo would defeat Wamuu.

Damn pompous bastard.

Jojo clenched his fist, setting his jaw. "Alright!" he said, and tied Caesar's purple and orange zigzag headband around his head, tying it behind him and pulling it tight. Just the way he'd seen Caesar do so many times. "Time to go add the 'Ex' to my ex-fiancé!" He forced out a laugh. "I'm really not the bigamist type, after all! There's simply not enough of me to be shared between Caesar _and_ Wamuu!"

Jokes. Jokes gave him courage. He needed all the courage he could get right now.

(Caesar might be dead when he got back.)

Caesar was in Lisa Lisa's hands. He'd be fine. Jojo believed in that more than in any god, jackal head or no.

"Make sure I don't lose my other fiancé today too, Lisa Lisa!" Jojo called, and bounded up the blood-stained steps.

(How much of it was Caesar's, and how much of it Wamuu's?)

(It didn't matter.)

A trail of blood leading from the top of the steps, up the second flight; that had to be Wamuu's. Jojo followed it.

(But wait, it wouldn't just be Wamuu he'd be up against, now would it? Kars was in here somewhere, too.)

Jojo shook his head and kept walking. The ribbons of Caesar's headband fluttered behind him. Caesar's strength flowing through him.

His promise with Caesar went both ways, after all: _Till death do us part._

If he couldn't allow Caesar to die, then he couldn't allow himself to die, either. That would just be bad form.

Jojo took his relationships seriously, damnit.

And he and Wamuu still had a date.

And if Kars wanted to join in on it, then, well: the more the merrier. It would be like a bachelor party, or something like that.

And Jojo had always wanted to attend one of those.

* * *

Caesar was ready to die. He had a plan. How not to die even when he was dead. He would make a bubble from his blood to hold the last ounces of his Hamon energy, and the ring and his headband. He would leave it for Jojo. Jojo would live on. In Jojo the flame of Caesar's life would burn on. Wouldn't sputter to nothing.

The ceiling was cracking. About to fall. Caesar was ready.

But then there was pain everywhere, blinding white. But the ceiling hadn't fallen yet.

When Caesar's vision cleared, he was staring into Jojo's eyes. Bright aqua eyes. They were frightened.

He hadn't thought he'd ever see Jojo looking that frightened.

Jojo was talking to him.

It was hard to hear.

Jojo was gripping him.

It was hard to feel

Pain everywhere. Blood in his mouth.

Jojo was there.

"J-jo… jo…" It was hard to wrap his mind around.

When had Jojo gotten there?

How had he gotten there?

Was Caesar seeing things?

"Caesar," Jojo was saying. It sounded like he was saying. Repeating his name.

It was Jojo. It had to be Jojo. In the blood and flesh.

If it wasn't, Caesar would be crushed by that stone.

"Caesar," Jojo kept saying. "You gotta stay with me!"

That was so Jojo. Asking for the impossible. Expecting the impossible. Denying the inevitable.

And he usually got his way, too.

But not this time. Caesar was dying. He knew that. Could feel it. The life leaving him. The blood. The warmth. The Hamon. His life energy.

Even the pain was leaving him. He was cold. It kept getting colder.

"J-Jojo…" The ring. Caesar needed to give him the ring.

He checked his fingers. They were still there. Still working, if barely. He could feel the metal ring between them. It was still looped through his headband, just as he'd been planning on sealing it within the bubble.

It took all his strength to lift his hand, to try to give the ring to Jojo. "H-here… f-for you…"

It was so difficult to speak. So much blood in his mouth. So much cold. Everywhere cold.

Jojo was gripping his hand, but he wasn't taking the ring. The idiot.

"You gotta stay with me," he was saying. Over and over.

It was hardly a month ago when Caesar had realized that, for Jojo, he would do anything.

But he couldn't do what Jojo was asking.

"J-jojo…" But he could give Jojo the ring. The antidote. He could save him. Could free him.

Jojo wouldn't have to be scared anymore.

"T-take it…" Caesar tried to give him the ring. It was taking all his strength just to hold his hand up. To keep the ring from slipping through his fingers.

He could do that much for Jojo. He wouldn't die for nothing. He wouldn't let his life's flame splutter out.

Lisa Lisa was saying something. Caesar couldn't hear. His ears were ringing.

Were Jojo's eyes watering, or did it just look that way because Caesar's vision was blurring?

Jojo was choking on his name.

But he still wasn't taking the ring. Damned idiot.

"T-take it." Caesar wanted to shove the ring in Jojo's damn face. Make him swallow it if he needed to, force it down his throat. "J-jojo… Wamuu is…" His arm wasn't cooperating properly. Apparently he was reliant on Jojo realizing what he was trying to give him and taking it. "T-take it… defeat him… defeat Wamuu, while he's still…" It was already difficult to speak, and then he kept getting interrupted by convulsions, blood in his mouth. It was aggravating. Jojo needed to leave him, leave him and go take this chance to defeat Wamuu before he healed. "Still weak…"

"I'm not leaving you!" Jojo was still kneeling there, just gripping his hand. Instead of chasing after Wamuu, like he should be. "Caesar, you gotta stay with me!"

Lisa Lisa was saying something again. Caesar hated that she had to see him like this.

"Forget Wamuu!" Jojo was shouting. The idiot. "We need an ambulance!"

Idiot. An ambulance would never get there in time. And even if they did, they wouldn't be able to save him. Caesar was as good as dead. He knew that.

He needed to give Jojo the ring. Before he couldn't anymore.

His time was running out.

 _He had to give Jojo the ring._

"J-jojo…!" He mustered up every last ounce of his strength to grab the idiot by the collar and hold his headband with the ring up in Jojo's face so he'd finally be forced to see it. "Take it! T-take it!" Caesar didn't have much time left. He could feel his life leaving like the last few grains of sand in an hourglass falling. "W-wamuu, you h-have to… defeat him…!"

This was Jojo's perfect chance. Caesar had given him the perfect chance.

 _Jojo needed to take it. Hurry up and take it!_

The puddle of blood around Caesar's body was growing. Jojo was kneeling in it, soaked in it.

Lisa Lisa's hands were on his chest, her hands glowing with Hamon. She was trying to heal him.

It wouldn't work. She was wasting her time.

"D-don't…" It was so damned hard to speak. Caesar hated it. The pain he could stand, but he _needed to get through to them._ "L-leave me… W-wamuu… you have to…!" They were wasting precious time.

He couldn't hold the ring up any longer. His arm was giving out.

Caesar felt despair. It clenched his heart with fingers darker and colder and a million times more painful than the shadowy arms of death that were embracing him from behind, pulling him back gently.

He couldn't hold the ring up any longer. His arm was falling. His fingers wouldn't be able to grip the ring. The floor would knock it from his grasp, and if it slipped off his headband it would be sent rolling lost into the rubble.

But his hand never hit the ground. Caesar blinked.

Jojo was gripping his hand in his own. His gaze burning into Caesar's. "I accept your proposal."

Those eyes. Such an intense aqua. And that ridiculous, gravity-defying hair. It stuck up even when Jojo tilted his head back to drink the antidote.

For a moment Caesar felt warm again. "J-jojo…"

Jojo would be okay.

Jojo had taken his hand again, looking at him intensely.

Such a bright aqua.

If the ocean were that color, no one would mind drowning in it.

"You know whatthis meansthoughright?" The broken pieces of the ring were being pressed into Caesar's hand. They were hard to feel. "' _Till death do_ _us_ _part.'_ Sew you bedder livdue you hearme?! Don't you dare make Mia Wid oh er before weave even/add thechance two've aprop per wed ien!"

What was Jojo saying?

The idiot.

But he was safe. He would defeat Wamuu. Caesar knew he would.

It was Jojo.

"J-jojo…" Caesar's vision was blurring. Death was stealing over him softly, like the night into evening. Like falling asleep. He wouldn't even know the moment when it truly began. "Th-thank you…"

For taking the ring.

For finishing what Caesar started.

For their time together.

This last month

had been

the best month of Caesar's life.

"Youherdwhateyesaidwrite?!" Jojo wasn't making any sense. "Weer bechrothednow, sew yoar not aloud too die onmi!"

Caesar couldn't decipher his words. It didn't matter. Caesar felt happy anyway.

"J-jojo… I know you'll… defeat W-wamuu… f-for… for me…"

After all, it was Joj—

* * *

Jojo was pretty sure he'd gotten his life's fill of bachelor parties.

That castle-turned-hotel really wasn't a bad location for a party, all things considered, if only there hadn't been so many damned cobwebs. Sheesh, they hadn't even bothered to clean the place. What kind of event planners were they?

At least they'd remembered to get a butler, even if he'd been such a terrible one that Jojo had quickly sent him packing straight to hell where he belonged. And 'Wired Beck'? The hell kind of a name was that?

Yeah, these Pillar Men really sucked at event planning. Damn, he really couldn't trust anything to anyone. If you wanted something done right, you had to do it yourself.

Good thing he'd called off the wedding.

Because seriously, their guest list—all the guests were vampires! What the hell?! Vampires were just no fun at a party. And so damn many of them! They were rude and obnoxious, they couldn't dance worth shit, and you couldn't even have drinking contests with them.

Oh, and they had a habit of hanging from the ceiling. Talk about lame. The dance floor was on the opposite horizontal surface!

Jojo was forced to dance by himself. It was embarrassing. Wamuu and Kars just watched him flounder around, smirking as he stepped on his invisible partner's toes.

Good thing Jojo was absolutely impervious to embarrassment.

Luckily when Kars had finally gotten tired of watching him make a fool of himself and had been about to order the vampires to join in—and sheesh, one guy couldn't dance with a hundred partners at once!—Wamuu interrupted to request duet with him. And even though Kars had denied the request it still had given Jojo time to think of a way to even the odds a bit.

The Pillar Men wanted the stone, and he was in the way, so they wouldn't have let him leave alive. Unless doing so would endanger the stone.

A bluff: he'd told Lisa Lisa that if he didn't return by a certain time, then she should destroy the stone. (He'd been banking on Lisa Lisa having contacted the Speedwagon Foundation by then and gotten herself, Caesar, and Messina outta there.)

That had made Kars pause. Which allowed Jojo to make him an offer he couldn't refuse:

They would fight for the stone, one-on-one. The winner got the stone. He would fight Wamuu one-on-one first, fulfilling their promise, and if Wamuu won the Pillar Men got the stone. If Jojo won, he would then fight Kars one-on-one, and if Kars won he got the stone, and if Jojo won then _he_ got the stone.

And there was no way Kars could have refused an offer like that, right? The chances that Jojo defeated Wamuu were slim, and the chances of Jojo defeating Wamuu and then immediately after that defeating Kars? Nigh nonexistent.

There was no _way_ Kars would turn down an offer that was stacked so highly in his favor. No doubt he'd thought it amusing. Was Jojo crazy?

(Maybe. But at least it wouldn't be a hundred to one. His illusions and tricks tended not to work so well on mobs. And he'd promised Caesar that he would defeat Wamuu and Kars and get out alive. He took his promises seriously, goddamnit!)

(So Caesar better damn not die, either.)

Then there was just the little matter of guaranteeing that he would show up with the stone at the desired meeting place.

He'd suggested that he stay with them until the appointed time, and that they send a message to Lisa Lisa and then she would meet them at the appointed time and place with the stone. When asked how he'd contact her, he suggested a Hamon-infused carrier pigeon.

Kars hadn't been amused.

Ultimately Kars had ended up sticking his own ring around Jojo's heart—and he'd just gotten rid of Wamuu's! He mentally apologized profusely to Caesar—which would start to disintegrate in one day if Jojo didn't show up with the stone that night, promising that he would naturally give him the antidote once he arrived with the stone and before he fought Wamuu.

And Jojo really wouldn't have trusted Kars to not just let the ring kill him, except that he was sure Wamuu would make sure Kars kept good on the promise to give him the antidote when he showed up with the stone.

So Jojo got another damned poison ring around his heart, and he was able to leave and tell Lisa Lisa that he'd basically promised to get himself killed that night and hand over the stone in the process. The horror of that conversation!

But Lisa Lisa had agreed to go with it (was she totally crazy? Maybe she was—after all, she _had_ thrown him down into the deadly Hell Climb Pillar pit as soon as he'd arrived on her island, without giving him any kind of instruction whatsoever…). Though she'd insisted on accompanying him, of course.

Then when they arrived at the stone circle place at midnight, Lisa Lisa threw them all for a loop by suggesting that Kars, instead of fighting Jojo, fight her instead. And Kars had agreed, a complacent smirk on his stupid face.

Supercilious bastard. Probably didn't matter to him which of them he fought, he was so sure he'd win either way. Or maybe he thought it would be amusing to fight Lisa Lisa, since Jojo was probably going to lose to Kars, and then he'd be able to rub Jojo's death in her face while taking his time wiping the floor with her.

Too bad for him that that wasn't how things turned out. Because Jojo succeeded in defeating Wamuu, thanks to Caesar's headband and Caesar's fighting spirit that had resided within him since Caesar had shoved that headband and lip ring into his face and told him to win.

(His promise to Caesar had given him strength like he'd never had.)

Jojo could say one thing for his ex-fiancé, though—Wamuu knew how to properly dance with a guy.

Kars, though? Kars was a damned _dirty_ dancer. Not gentlemanly at all.

What he'd done to Lisa Lisa, tricking her and stabbing her in the back then stringing that rope through her feet, using her against as a tool against him…

And as if he hadn't already been bad enough, he'd gotten his hands on the stone and the mask and ascended into the perfect being, and _that_ was horrifying! He could turn his hand into a rabid squirrel! Jojo would still be having nightmares about that, years into the future.

Especially given that he was missing a hand now, thanks to Kars cutting it off.

But hey, at least he'd survived! And he'd defeated Kars while he was it, too! (Or wait, maybe that order should be reversed? That at least he'd defeated Kars, and survived while he was at it, too?)

(Nah, his survival was the more important part.)

Maybe he could get Stroheim to make him an awesome new robotic hand.

In any case, it sure was lucky he'd survived that fall on that boulder, and then gotten saved by a fishing boat. Lady Luck really did love him!

And now he was in a hospital in Venice, covered head to toe in casts and bandages and unable to move or go anywhere. Which kind of sucked.

Well, it was nice to be alive. Really nice.

But he had no idea if Caesar was alive or dead. And that?

That sucked.

And on top of that, it was also concerning that when he'd asked the hospital doctors about that petrified organ that's been bothering him, they'd said that he had absolutely nothing of the kind.

So the hell was that hard thing trying to bore a hole through the pit of his stomach?

The agonizing nausea it induced made it hard to eat, and every time he closed his eyes he saw chartreuse green.

Sometimes he wondered if maybe that's what dying felt like.

Maybe he wasn't actually going to survive this, after all.

* * *

Caesar had never expected to survive.

"So you're finally awake," the nurse had informed him, as if the bright white room and the stinging smell of antiseptic hadn't been clue enough that he wasn't dead.

"We weren't sure if you ever would," the nurse was saying. His eyes hadn't adjusted to the light. He couldn't make her out. "You've been unconscious for seven days. Your body was completely shredded, but that woman—Lisa, was it? She used some kind of Hamon energy on you that saved your life. You're very lucky. (Why isn't this Hamon thing being used in medical research yet? It performed a damn miracle on this guy. He shouldn't be alive by any right.) How do you feel, Caesar?"

The blurry shape of a person was coming into focus. "J-jo… Jojo…" he managed to croak out, throat paper dry.

A plastic cup was pressed to his lips and he drank gratefully.

"Jojo," he said again, and struggled to sit up. "Where is Jojo?"

The nurse had gently pushed him back down. "I'm sorry, I don't know who Jojo is. You're at a hospital in Switzerland funded by the Speedwagon Foundation. Their doctors took care of you personally."

That wasn't his question. He didn't care where he was or who had treated him; he hadn't expected to live, anyway.

But Jojo. What had happened to Jojo? "Where is Jojo?" he asked again, desperation starting to seize him. "Tell me where he is!"

Hands were pushing him down. "You need to rest. You've been through a tremendous shock, both mentally and physically. (Can you up his dosage? We can't let him work himself up when he's still in this state.)"

"Tell me where Jojo is!" He'd struggled to shrug the hands off him and sit up, but the room was growing dimmer, and then everything was dark and he couldn't move and then he wasn't conscious of anything anymore.

Needless to say, he didn't get any answers until maybe the third or fifth time he woke up—he seemed to recall similar scenarios to the first time he'd woken up recurring several times, but he wasn't sure how much of it had actually happened and how much was a result of his confused drugged-up state—that he finally got any answers.

Because finally he woke up, and his eyes were working properly, and Speedwagon and Lisa Lisa were both there, smiling sadly at him.

Lisa Lisa put her hand over his. "We're so glad you made it, Caesar."

"It took both Hamon and all of the Speedwagon Foundation's doctors' medical expertise, but you're on the road to a full recovery," Speedwagon informed him.

"Where's Jojo?"

Speedwagon looked away, fiddled with his hat. Lisa Lisa's lips thinned.

Caesar felt sick.

Lisa Lisa's grip on his hand tightened. "Jojo defeated Wamuu and Kars," she told him. "But he…"

"He was shot up into the mesosphere on a volcanic rock and then crashed into the ocean," Speedwagon said, and his fingers clenching the edge of his hat were white. "According to von Stroheim. He was the only one aside from Kars who was there."

A volcanic rock. Shot into the mesosphere. Fallen into the ocean.

Caesar half-laughed, half-choked.

Only Jojo.

Only Jojo would die in such a crazy way as that.

"Kars was launched into space," Speedwagon continued. "As far as we've monitored, he hasn't returned."

Kars. Launched into space.

"He had managed to use the stone to become the perfect being," Lisa Lisa was saying. "He could stand in the sun. He could turn his body into anything."

"He even survived being thrown into molten lava," Speedwagon was saying. "There was no way to kill him…"

"But Jojo still managed to win," Lisa Lisa said, and gripped Caesar's hand. "He did exactly as he promised. He may have died, but he defeated the Pillar Men, something nobody else would have been able to do."

That was so incredibly Jojo.

Caesar wasn't sure if he was laughing or sobbing. He was grinning, but there were tears streaming down his cheeks. His chest was convulsing and his breathing was unsteady.

"Jojo, that brilliant _idiot_ …"

(Jojo was dead, and yet Caesar had never been more in awe of him or loved him more than he did in that moment. The irony. And Caesar was alive, even though by all rights he shouldn't be, and now he had to live with the aftermath of this. How was he supposed to do that? He'd given Jojo his everything, and now Jojo was gone. What did that leave Caesar with?)

There were tears in Lisa Lisa's eyes that she was fighting back. Speedwagon was crying silently.

The door to the room was thrown open, some guy in a Speedwagon Foundation uniform bursting in. "Speedwagon! We've just received a telegram from a hospital in Venice! Joseph is alive!"

Lisa Lisa gasped, covering her mouth with a hand, eyes wide. Speedwagon jumped to his feet, demanding the details.

And then Caesar was _really_ laughing, tears in his eyes, because that was just so _Jojo._

That unbelievable, crazy, lucky bastard. He'd defeated the Pillar Men and had survived. He was safe and in a hospital, only one country border away. They'd won, and they'd see each other again.

Caesar had never been so happy to be _alive_.

* * *

"You have a visitor, Joseph," the nurse said, opening the door and stepping into the room.

"How many times do I have to tell you to call me Jojo?!" Jojo griped. "'Joseph' makes me sound like someone's old grandpa!"

But then the nurse opened the door wider, and a familiar guy with wind-swept blond hair and cerulean green eyes stepped in wearing a swanky white jacket that looked like it would stain if it so much as got dust on it, leaning against the doorframe and crossing his arms over his chest, a smirk on his lips.

"A volcano, huh?" Caesar asked, and his eyes were laughing. He was holding a bouquet of sunflowers.

"Caesar!" Jojo cried, trying his best to sit up with all his limbs still bandaged in casts and elevated in absurd positions. "You're alive!"

"I could say the same to you," Caesar said, sauntering in and setting the sunflowers on the bedside table before taking a seat in the chair next to the bed, resting his chin on his hand. "You took on Kars all by yourself after he'd evolved into a perfect being and you got blasted by a volcano nearly into space before falling back into the ocean. Are you crazy?"

"Hey!" Jojo protested, doing his best to point at him with his bandaged right hand. "If you think _I'm_ crazy, you clearly don't know Stroheim! He jumped out of a crashing airplane _without a parachute!_ While carrying me! He totally destroyed his robotic legs! And do you know that he doesn't have flesh legs anymore because he asked me to chop them off when we were going up against Santana?! I still have nightmares about that!"

Caesar's eyes had glanced over him and landed on the stump of Jojo's left wrist, his smirk twisting into a frown. "Your hand…"

"Oh, that," Jojo said, waving the stump. "Yeah, Kars cut it off. But I figure I should consider myself lucky. I mean, Messina lost an entire _arm,_ and Stroheim lost most of his _body._ And if he could replace all his limbs with mechanical ones, what's replacing a measly little hand?" Jojo laughed. "I'll be part cyborg! How cool is that?!"

"Well," Caesar said, gesturing airily, "I suppose that's one way of looking at it."

Jojo sobered, looked at Caesar and smiled slightly. "Hey, I'm really glad you're alive, Caesar."

Caesar raised a blond eyebrow at him, his lips quirking. "Again, I could say the same to you. Seems like we both cut it pretty close, huh?"

"Yeah," Jojo said, and laughed. "You know, I thought that I'd be the one visiting _you_ in the hospital, not the other way around!"

"You didn't honestly think you'd be able to fight both Wamuu and Kars without landing yourself some grievous injuries," Caesar deadpanned.

"Heheh," Jojo said, and scratched at the back of his head as best as he could with his bandaged limb. "I guess I wasn't really thinking about it?"

"Clearly not," Caesar said, and crossed one leg over the other, one arm hanging over the back of the chair. That smirk was back on his lips. "If you ever thought at all, you probably wouldn't end up in such bizarre situations in the first place."

"Says the guy who fights with _bubbles!"_ Jojo accused, and Caesar rolled his eyes.

"They're _Hamon-infused_ bubbles, thank you very much," he said haughtily, and pointed a finger at Jojo. "And I'll have you know that those bubbles almost completely destroyed Wamuu."

Jojo's aqua eyes widened. "Ah! Right! I was going to tell you: your headband."

Caesar raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"

"It really saved my ass in the battle against Wamuu," Jojo told him. "Just, you know. Just so you know. Why I maybe don't have it anymore and can't give it back. I kind of, uh. Burned it."

Caesar snorted. " _That's_ what you wanted to tell me? Something so trivial?"

"Hey!" Jojo protested, narrowing his eyes. "It wasn't trivial! That headband was totally crucial!"

"No," Caesar said, looking at him in amusement, "I meant that that's what you wanted to tell me, should I turn out to be alive?"

"Yes!" Jojo said defensively. "What's wrong with that?!"

Caesar snorted. "See, and this is why you've never had a girlfriend," he said, shaking his head and gesturing helplessly.

"Oi!" Jojo protested, and pointed at him with the bandaged stump of his left wrist. "You leave my nonexistent girlfriends out of this!"

Caesar leaned his chin back on his hand, meeting Jojo's gaze and holding it, green gaze intense. "Do you want to know what I wanted to tell you, should you turn out to be alive, Jojo?"

Jojo just stared at him, eyes slightly widened. "Uh. Do I?"

"You're an idiot," Caesar told him.

" _That's_ what you wanted to tell me?!" Jojo squawked indignantly. "If I had a dollar for every time someone told me that, I'd be a rich man!"

But then Caesar had stood up and put a hand on the pillows next to Jojo's head, leaning in and pressing his lips to Jojo's.

"I love you," Caesar said when he pulled back, staring Jojo in the eyes. Jojo blinked at him dazedly. "That's what I promised myself I would tell you."

Jojo swallowed. "H-how long?" he croaked, and reached over to gingerly grab a glass of water that was set on the bedside table, swigging hurriedly.

"Since you led Wamuu away from me and Speedwagon even though you were the most injured out of the three of us, and then stared Wamuu in the face while lying beat-up on the ground and told him that with just one month of training you could beat him," Caesar said, holding Jojo's gaze unflinchingly.

Jojo nearly choked on his water. "H-holy shit. That long?!"

Caesar raised his eyebrows, his lips quirking. "It's been hardly over a month. Most people would say that isn't very long at all."

"Okay, but like—!" Jojo pointed at him and narrowed his eyes. "I didn't realize I was in love with you until, like, five minutes ago, when you walked into the room and then that damn petrified organ finally disappeared and I felt the way Kars looked when he saw the sun for the first time after thousands of years of fearing it, and I really hated that guy you have no idea how weird it is to feel sympathy for him!"

"Is that so," Caesar said, and he looked more amused than anything else. "Then what was this marriage proposal Lisa Lisa was telling me about? Did you not ask me to be your fiancé when I was on the verge of death?"

"Oi oi oi _oi,_ " Jojo said, " _you're_ the one who gave me a ring, you know! You know how I turn everything into a joke when I'm under pressure! And I would've said anything to get you to promise not to die!"

Caesar raised his eyebrows again, and Jojo continued with, "And don't you _dare_ tell me that that's unconventional or some shit like that when you're the one who proposed with a damn lip ring! Who _does_ that?!"

"Excuse me, but visiting hours are over," the nurse said, reappearing in the doorway.

"Guess that's my cue," Caesar said, standing. He waved gracefully. "Ciao, Jojo." He started to turn. "Till next time."

"Wait!" Jojo cried, and lurched to grab Caesar's jacket with his bandaged right hand, pulling him back. " _Fuck, that hurts!_ " he hissed, and while Caesar looked at him with widened green eyes Jojo grabbed his collar and pulled him down, crashing their lips together gracelessly.

"Mmph," Caesar grunted, but tilted his head into the kiss, closing his eyes, guiding the messy kiss into something more deft, more lyrical.

They pulled back, and Jojo looked at him seriously. "When you propose for real when we're not under severe duress for our lives," he said, "make sure you give me an _actual_ ring, because I will _not_ wear a lip one! Those things are freaky!"

Caesar was staring at him with curious surprise, fingers of one hand pressed lightly to his lips, as if he still couldn't believe that Jojo had kissed him. "Right," he said, and lowered his hand, the smirk returning to his features. "Just name what carat of diamond you want—"

"They make diamonds in the shape of carrots?!" Jojo exclaimed, aqua eyes wide in aghast indignation. "Who would wear a ring like that?!"

Caesar just stared at him for a moment before facepalming. "You're an idiot, Jojo," he muttered.

"And you're a pompous asshole, Caesar," Jojo fired back, wagging a bandaged finger at him before immediately wincing at the movement. "Damn, everything hurts still…"

"I'm sorry," said the nurse awkwardly, glancing uneasily between them before her gaze settled on Caesar, "but I really must ask you to leave now…"

Caesar sighed, lowering his hand from his face. "I'll see you later, Jojo," he said, turning and walking out of the room, making a flippant wave over his shoulder. "Maybe with a ring next time. Make sure you put those flowers in a vase with water!"

"Good day and well recovery wishes to you, too!" Jojo called after him, as Caesar turned into the hallway and disappeared from view.

"Sheesh," Jojo muttered to himself, glancing over with narrowed eyes at the bouquet of sunflowers on the table, "sunflowers don't even smell nice…"

He made a face, before looking at the nurse and raising his stump of a left wrist inquiringly. "Uh, excuse me nurse lady I've forgotten the name of! Could you put these in a vase with water for me, please?"

The nurse sighed but moved to do so, and Jojo grinned so broadly that his happiness reached escape velocity and burst out of him as a laugh. "Thanks a ton!"

Outside the room, Caesar walked down the hospital hallway with fingers pressed gently to his smiling lips where the tingling sensation from Jojo's kiss still lingered.

* * *

 _ **Fin.**_


End file.
